‘Steve Jobs’ movie trailer fuels debate

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that “The Social Network” won the Academy Award for best picture in 2011. The film was a nominee. The error has been corrected.

Universal Pictures

A frame from a trailer for Universal Pictures's “Steve Jobs”

The newly released trailer for the much-anticipated “Steve Jobs” movie has created a stir, fueling a debate around actor Michael Fassbender’s portrayal of the legendary Apple Inc.
AAPL, -0.32%
co-founder.

The trailer is immediately drawing comparisons with another popular movie about tech icons, “The Social Network,” for its apparently darker glimpse into Jobs’s character. Interwoven between the main scenes of Jobs unveiling three major products during his career are confrontations with his Apple colleagues ahead of the debut of the Macintosh, his being ousted from Apple by its board of directors, and his one-time girlfriend fighting over the paternity of his daughter, Lisa.

Here is the trailer of the movie, which is slated for release by Universal Pictures on Oct. 9.

Those comparisons with “The Social Network,” which was nominated for Best Picture in 2011, are inevitable. The script for “Steve Jobs” was written by Aaron Sorkin, who won an academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Social Network,” about the early days of Facebook Inc.
FB, -1.44%

But the biggest debate seems to be over whether or not Fassbender is believable as Jobs. On Twitter, for example, Tom Crabtree, the founder of Manual Creative, wrote that the movie looks good but that he wasn’t buying the likeness to Jobs.

New Steve Jobs movie looks good, but I'm not buying the likeness (visual or verbal). Seems more Patrick Bateman than Steve Jobs.

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